History

Nanning was once the territory of the Baiyue people and became the capital of Jinxing Prefecture which was separated from Yulin Prefecture of the Eastern Jin dynasty.

In the Yuan dynasty in 1324, it was renamed Nanning Lu (an administrative division) of Yongzhou Lu meaning "May peace maintain in the southern frontier", hence the name Nanning. Historically, Nanning was famous for trade, and had permanent business offices from other areas in China since the Song dynasty.

In the Ming dynasty Nanning developed into the commodity distributing center of the Zuo River and the You River with the reputation of "Little Nanjing".

Nanning serves as host for the annual China-ASEAN EXPO (CASEAN EXPO) which began in 2005 and was the venue for the 2006 "World Robotics Olympiad".

Cityscape

Nanning is home of the 21st tallest building[2] in the People's Republic of China, the Diwang International Commerce Center, at 276 m (906 ft), currently the tallest building in Guangxi and southwestern China (excluding Chongqing). The second tallest building in Nanning is the World Trade Commerce City at 218 meters. The city currently has seven buildings taller than 100 m (330 ft), built or under construction.

Nanning has many parks with tropical lush green landscape, it is one of the "greenest" cities in China, and it's known as "Green City"(绿城). Nanning's downtown skyline is rapidly changing and the city is becoming an important hub in China.

Recently, the government has began a city wide beautification plan which aimed to clean up the city and improve its image. This involved curtailing the number of street-side food vendors operating without proper licenses, restricting parking in busy streets, and attempting to eliminate the number of street prostitutes that appear after dark, especially west of the city and around the railway station. The program has proved successful, eliminating both the amount of rubbish on the streets and dramatically cutting down the number of ubiquitous working girls.

Economy

Nanning Street

Nanning's GDP in 2007 was 106.3 billion RMB, which was a 17.1 percent growth over the previous year.[3] The GDP per capita was ¥15,685 (US$2,147), ranking no. 116 among 659 Chinese cities. Foreign exports in 2007 were 10 billion USD. Foreign fixed asset investment was 34.3 billion RMB. Nanning has six development zones and industrial parks, three of which accounted for 6 billion RMB of Nanning's GDP, more than 8 percent of Nanning's total.

Mineral resources include gold, iron, manganese, aluminum, quartz, silver, indium, coal, marble, and granite. One third of China's different types of mineral resources are found in Nanning.

Highways

Flora and fauna

Nanning's warm climate gives it a large amount of biodiversity. There are many species of animals and more than 3,000 species of plants. The city flower is the Jaba flower, an evergreen shrub, and the city tree is the almond tree which is regarded as the backbone tree used for greening and landscaping throughout the city.

Geography

Nanning is located in the southern part of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, 160 km (99 mi) from the border with Vietnam. It has an administrative area of 22,293 km2 (8,607 sq mi).[8]

Nanning is situated in a hilly basin with elevations between 70 and 500 m (230 and 1,640 ft) above sea-level. Qingxiu Mountain dominates the southern part of town.

Climate

Nanning

Climate chart ()

J

F

M

A

M

J

J

A

S

O

N

D

35

17

10

43

18

12

59

22

15

97

27

20

186

30

23

207

32

25

219

33

25

205

33

25

128

32

24

66

28

20

40

24

15

25

20

11

Average max. and min. temperatures in °C

Precipitation totals in mm

Source: CMA

Imperial conversion

J

F

M

A

M

J

J

A

S

O

N

D

1.4

62

50

1.7

64

53

2.3

71

59

3.8

80

67

7.3

87

73

8.1

90

77

8.6

91

78

8.1

91

77

5

89

74

2.6

83

68

1.6

75

60

1

68

52

Average max. and min. temperatures in °F

Precipitation totals in inches

Nanning has a warm, monsoon-influenced humid subtropical climate (KöppenCfa), with an annual mean temperature of 21.82 °C (71.3 °F). Summers are hot and humid with July, the hottest month, having a 24-hour average temperature of 28.4 °C (83.1 °F). Winters are mild and somewhat damp with January, the coolest month, averaging 12.9 °C (55.2 °F) in January. From February to August, rain is most frequent and relative humidity consistently averages above 80 percent; the annual rainfall is 1,310 millimetres (51.6 in). The area is also frost-free for all but 3 or 4 days a year and snowfall is virtually unheard of in the city, with a unique exception since 1900: in December 1975 snow fell on the city albeit without sticking to the ground. Extreme temperatures have ranged from −2.1 to 40.4 °C (28 to 105 °F).[9] With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 17 percent in March to 51 percent in September, the city receives 1,585 hours of bright sunshine annually.

Demographics

At 2010 census, the total population of Nanning was 6,611,600, among which 2,875,220 were urban residents (after the adjustment of administrative divisions) and 2,480,340 in the built up area made of 5 out of 6 urban districts.[11] Nanning is a city in which Zhuang ethnic group live in compact communities, and also the only city in all the autonomous regions of China with open coastal areas. Thirty-five ethnic groups live in compact communities in Nanning, including people of Zhuang, Han, Yao, Hui, Miao, Dong, and Man minorities.

Culture

Nanning is the center of science and technology, education, culture and health in Guangxi Province. There are altogether 54 scientific research institutes subordinate to districts. 10 colleges and 50 trade schools are training specialised personnel of all kinds. Now there are 62 mass cultural organizations, 13 performing groups, 8 cinemas, 285 projecting units, over 70 karaoke halls and over 1000 newsstands. Bookshops and cultural markets can be found everywhere.

Food

Nanning has not only local cuisine but also food from other areas of China and abroad. Traditional food culture can be found around most streets of Nanning. Nanning food shares the style of Cantonese food and of Southeast Asia. Chinese cuisine including Guangdong, Szechuan, Hunan and Jiangsu as well as Japanese, Thai and Western cuisines can be found.

This article was sourced from Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. World Heritage Encyclopedia content is assembled from numerous content providers, Open Access Publishing, and in compliance with The Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR), Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., Public Library of Science, The Encyclopedia of Life, Open Book Publishers (OBP), PubMed, U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and USA.gov, which sources content from all federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial government publication portals (.gov, .mil, .edu). Funding for USA.gov and content contributors is made possible from the U.S. Congress, E-Government Act of 2002.

Crowd sourced content that is contributed to World Heritage Encyclopedia is peer reviewed and edited by our editorial staff to ensure quality scholarly research articles.

By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. World Heritage Encyclopedia™ is a registered trademark of the World Public Library Association, a non-profit organization.